Raven of the Valkyrie
by LARISSAtheBRAVE
Summary: Bucky finds himself waking up in a hospital in 1945, nearly a year after the fall he thought would be his death. Puzzled at how he is even still alive he sets out to uncover the truth about the experiments Zola did on him back in '43. As the effects of those experiments slowly start to reveal themselves Bucky knows only one person he can turn to for help; his best friend Steve.
1. prologue

**Prologue**

_**january 1945**_

'Bucky!' Steve shouted.

The cold air rushed against the sides of my face making his scream sound like a muffled sound in the distance. I saw the solid floor of the train and tried desperately to hold on to the metal bar. _it's so close._ 'Hang on!' Steve shouted again. he reached out his hand, hanging on the bar beside mine.

I could see the terrible fear in his eyes of losing the only friend he'd ever had. _I can't die, not now, not yet. _The same thought flying through my head over and over again.

yet ,it wasn't the fear of dying that scared me the most, it were the endless depths beneath me.

I didn't even dare to look down, instead, I kept looking at my best friend, his hand now inches from reaching mine. 'grab my hand!' carefully I moved closer to him and just when I'd went to reach out the bar gave way beneath my hands.

'no!'

The metal tore loose from the side of train and I screamed in shock.

It couldn't have lasted more than a few seconds but that moment, when I saw Steve's disappointment in himself, felt like an eternity. I wanted to say I was sorry, to say it wasn't his fault, because I knew Steve, knew the way he felt responsible for every tragedy he thought he could've prevented. _I just wished he wouldn't blame himself for this_.

I screamed in defeat as I fell down further into the unknown.

_Would I scatter on the ground, would I crash into the rocks, would I slam into the surface of the icy river snaking through the snow below? _

Wind rushed in my back while I was pulled down to my inevitable death. The train disappeared from view and so did Steve. the sides of the ravine quickly closed in on me, black ominous rocks swallowing the sky. I watched the small line of pale clouds grow smaller and smaller until the very end.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1 **Steve

**May 1945 **_**– London**_

'You did everything you could.' Peggy's voice was firm, she didn't seem to question his bravery anymore. _Brave would be the last thing he felt right now…_

she hadn't been with him when it had happened. She hadn't seen the way Bucky had picked up his shield after he was down, to protect them both.

'Have you read the report?'

Words couldn't describe what he had felt. Had she seen his friend just before fell, she would've understood that if only he'd been seconds faster Bucky would still be alive. _If only I had reached out an inch further, if only I had seen that damn Hydra goon in time. If only…_ _I could've done more…_

'Then you know that's not true.'

my mind was still stuck on that train when she spoke again.

'Did you believe your friend? Did you respect him?'

I looked up at her trying to say that if there was one person I'd always believed in, always respected and looked up to, it was Bucky. She could read on my face that he'd been the one and _only_ man I would ever believe in and respect as I had.

'If so, stop blaming yourself. At least Allow Barnes the dignity of his choice. He damn well must've thought you were worth it.'

But of course Bucky had thought I was worth it, _I was his best friend._ but I doubted he planned to die that day.

All my life I had been the one who had needed _him_, and while_ I_ could never really be there for him, he'd always been there for me. _every single time_. And when that one time had come where he for once needed me, instead of the other way around, I would not be able to be there.

_The one time he'd trusted his life in my hands, I'd let it slip._

The least I could do now was prove to him that I had been worth dying for.

Dr. Erskine, Bucky and maybe even Peggy; _they believed I could end this war for good and for that they would follow me into the jaws of death..._ yet I couldn't even save my only friend.

In my mind there was only one way of doing him justice; by finishing the battle he believed I could even fight _without_ him.

'I'm going after Schmidt'

Bucky's death won't be for nothing. I'll would prove to him that whatever hero he'd seen in me, whether it was a Captain or a scrawny kid, that man would be worth his sacrifice.

'I'm not gonna stop till all of Hydra is dead or captured.'

_He would save the world from Hydra, even if it no longer contained the best friend he'd ever had._

_Even if it meant he had to die himself… _

'You won't be alone.' Peggy's compassionate brown eyes met mine.

… _because he knew it still contained the love of his life…_

_And for her he would die a million times…_


End file.
